Handstands In The Dark

A True Story of Growing Up and Survival

Janey Godley

This book can be downloaded and read in Apple Books on your Mac or iOS device.

Description

Brought up amid near-Dickensian squalour in the tough East End of Glasgow and sexually abused by her uncle, Janey married into a Glasgow criminal family as a teenager, then found herself having to cope with the murder of her mother, violence, religious sectarianism, abject poverty and a frightening family of in-laws.

First-hand, Janey saw the gangland violence and met extraordinary characters within an enclosed and seldom-revealed Glasgow underworld - from the grim and far-from-Swinging 60s, to the discos of the 70s, to the tidal wave of heroin addiction which swept through and engulfed Glasgow's East End during the 1980s.

This evocative, intimate and moving portrayal of a woman forced to fight every day for her family's future will strike a chord with anyone who has ever struggled against adversity.

Customer Reviews

Handstands in the dark

by
Dawn-reader

Excellent book, brilliantly written.

Amazing

by
Jim Cleneghan

Read this book in one day. Couldn't stop reading. So many heart breaking stories I had to take a breather at some points. A window into a time when women in Glasgow were expected to endure some form of abuse. Janeys open and brutally honest account had in me in both tears of laughter and despair. A must read.